Form Equals Function


Making Classroom Assessment Work, Chapter 3, 4 and 5

Beginning with the End in Mind
Students can hit any target that they know about and that holds still for them. ~ Rick Stiggins

Differentiation
Lists of standards or learning outcomes seem to assume that all students start in the same place, at the same time, and proceed to learn in the same way. This has never been true. Today, teachers find out what students already know, can do, and can articulate, and then they teach. The result is that teachers must learn more and more ways to teach to an ever-increasing range of student needs. One part of this challenge is having a comprehensive understanding of one's subject matter, in order to help students learn. The second challenge is learning how to teach small groups within the class rather than always teaching to the large group of students. (Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work, p. 26)

Learning Targets
Teachers find that a description of what needs to be learned helps students learn more.
"Students can assess themselves only when they have a sufficiently clear picture of the targets their learning is meant to attain." ~ Black and William

Samples
Samples are important if quality classroom assessment is going to be effective. Samples or exemplars can be used by teachers when they:
  • Develop criteria with students
  • Show the range of possible ways to represent their learning (give evidence of learning)
  • Assess and give descriptive feedback about student work
  • Help others understand more about student learning

Setting and Using Criteria (Gregory, Cameron, and Davies 1997) outlines a process for developing criteria with students:
  1. Make a brainstormed list
  2. Sort and categorize the list
  3. Make and post a T-chart
  4. Use and revisit and revise

Sources of Evidence
There are three general sources of assessment evidence gathered in classrooms:
  • Observations of learning
  • Products students create
  • Conversations- discussing learning with students



Lesson and Classroom Design for 21st Century Learning

Vision of K-12 Students
Have to watch from home (Youtube)
Video

Thinking and Learning Architecture
Developing deeper thought and learning, moving from the What? to the How? and further to the Why?

Learner Centered
Process of Learning

Research shows students gain 55% to 59% in achievement test scores when teachers instruct using the students' preferred sensory and perceptual modes (Dunn, 1990; Hart, 1998).

Being a better teacher quote

Multiple Intelligences Test

10 Core Principles for Designing Effective Learning Environments
by
Judith Boettcher
1. Every structured learning experience has four elements with the learner at the center.
2. Every learning experience includes the environment in which the learner interacts.
3. We shape our tools and our tools shape us.
4. Faculty are the directors of the learning experience.
5. Learners bring their own personalized knowledge, skills and attitudes to the learning experience.
6. Every learner has a zone of proximal development that defines the space that a learner is ready to develop into useful knowledge.
7. Concepts are now words; Concepts are organized and intricate knowledge clusters.
8. All learners to not need to learn all course content; All learners do need to learn the Core Concepts.
9. Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes.
10. Everything else being equal, more time-on-task equals more learning.

Time Article
How to Bring Schools Out of the 20th Century



21st Century Skill Development

21st Century Skills

  • Digital-Age Literacy
  • Effective Communication
  • Inventive Thinking
  • High Productivity
21st Century Skills Article
21st Century Skills Brochure


NETS
NETS for Teachers
NETS for Students



Powerpoint from Training
Form = Function.ppt